A product vision is a powerful tool that can inspire your team, align your stakeholders, and guide your roadmap. But how do you create a product vision that stands out from the crowd and resonates with your customers? In this article, you'll learn some tips and best practices to craft a compelling product vision that drives your product marketing strategy.
Before you start writing your product vision, you need to know who you're writing for. Who are your ideal customers, what are their needs, goals, and pain points, and how does your product solve them? You can use tools like personas, customer segments, and value propositions to define your target audience and understand their motivations and expectations.
Clarity and Differentiation: Clearly define your product's unique selling proposition (USP) that sets it apart from competitors, emphasizing its benefits and value. Customer-Centric Approach: Align your product vision with solving real customer pain points or fulfilling unmet needs, ensuring relevance and resonance. Storytelling and Visualization: Craft a compelling narrative around your product's journey, envisioning its impact on users' lives and industries through engaging visuals and narratives.
Crafting your product vision? First, zoom in on your audience. It's like drawing a map of who will embark on the journey with your product. Identify your ideal customers – their needs, dreams, and challenges. Utilize personas and customer segments as your compass to navigate their world. Frame your product as the solution, their beacon in a sea of needs and desires. This isn't just about outlining a product; it's about connecting its purpose with the hearts and minds of those it's meant for.
Once you have a clear picture of your target audience, you need to articulate how your product delivers value to them. What are the unique benefits and features of your product, and how do they differ from your competitors? How do you communicate your value proposition in a clear, concise, and memorable way? You can use frameworks like the elevator pitch, the value proposition canvas, or the lean canvas to craft your value proposition and test it with your customers.
This seems obvious, but apparently it isn't. DON'T COPY YOUR COMPETITORS' VALUE PROPOSITION. Too many marketers adopt "me too" marketing thinking that if "it works for the competitors, it will work for us; we'll just say we'll do it better." Instead, your value proposition should emphasize what your competitors DON'T do.
Your product vision should not exist in isolation, but rather be aligned with your overall mission and goals. What is the purpose and impact of your product, and how does it support your company's vision and strategy? How do you measure the success and progress of your product, and what are the key milestones and metrics? You can use tools like the vision statement, the OKR framework, or the product strategy map to align your vision with your mission and goals.
Vision, mission, and goal must align for a coherent brand story and media presence. It is also essential for each of these to be carefully crafted statements that are simple, meaningful, and impressionable.
Your product vision should not only be informative, but also inspirational and engaging. How do you convey your product vision in a way that sparks interest and excitement among your stakeholders, such as your team, your customers, your investors, and your partners? How do you use storytelling, visuals, and emotions to create a vivid and compelling picture of your product's future? You can use tools like the vision board, the product video, or the product launch plan to inspire and engage your stakeholders.
Being transparent from the start by Involving stakeholders of your product design, making them informed of the journey in the creating of the new product. For example, Co-design with stakeholders and clearly define the product vision and timeline - see how we create the product in 12 months keeping people excited and wanted to be part of the product.
Two important tools to inspire and engage your stakeholders include: (1) A customer focus, rather than a self focus. Engage your stakeholders by talking about something they care about - themselves. They don't care about you...unless you can make their lives better. (2) A benefits orientation, rather than a features orientation. Engage your stakeholders by saying how you will make their lives better.
Your product vision should not be a rigid and fixed document, but rather a simple and flexible guide that evolves with your product. How do you keep your product vision simple and easy to understand, without losing its essence and impact? How do you adapt your product vision to changing market conditions, customer feedback, and new opportunities? You can use tools like the vision canvas, the product roadmap, or the agile methodology to keep your vision simple and flexible.
Avoid vision statements that lock you in forever. The, um, classic example is when New Coke came out, and Bill Cosby proclaimed in a commercial that the New Coke formula would last for 100 years, similar to the old one. (TL;DR - it didn't.) The company formerly known as "Apple Computer" even had to change its name as its vision evolved.
Your product vision should not be based on assumptions, but rather on evidence and validation. How do you test and validate your product vision with your customers, and learn from their feedback and behavior? How do you iterate and improve your product vision based on your findings and insights? You can use tools like the customer discovery, the MVP, or the lean startup approach to validate and iterate your vision.
Creating a compelling product vision involves crafting an audience-centric foundation by defining target audience needs and emphasizing clarity and differentiation. Articulate unique value using frameworks like the elevator pitch, ensuring clear, concise, and memorable communication. Align your vision with the company's mission and goals to create a coherent brand story. Inspire stakeholders through engaging storytelling, visuals, and emotions, and keep the vision simple yet flexible, adapting to changing conditions with tools like the vision canvas or agile methodology. Validate the vision through evidence-based methods like customer discovery, iterating, and refining based on feedback and insights.